How sweet it is: Estes Park's Halloween is flooded with donated candy

"It's not very often where there's a crisis in a community that a candy distributor and our partners can respond to," said Keith Pearson, resident of Estes Park and division president of McLane Western. "So this was a great opportunity."

Pearson showed up in Estes Park with a semi truck carrying five pallets, each about six feet high, of candy donated by his employer - McLane Company, one of the largest candy distributors in the world - and several candy manufacturers: Mars Chocolate North America, The Hershey Company, Ferrara Candy, Nestle USA, and Tootsie Charms. There are 141,000 pieces of candy in this shipment, including king size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups & Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups, Peanut M&Ms, Kit Kats, snack-size Hershey and Mars mixes and much more.

This mother lode of sweet treats plus additional candy donations came about a result of local business leaders searching for a way to save Halloween.

"After the flood, there was a group of us meeting at the Stanley: The Estes Park Community Flood Recovery, headed up by Adam Shake," said Charley Dickey, local business owner and community volunteer. "My wife, Kathleen George, (owner of Rustic Mountain Charm) suggested we do something for the downtown businesses for Halloween."

Every since 1983, downtown Estes Park businesses have passed out candy to the local children on Halloween night, said Moses Street, the business owner who started the tradition. Street's oldest daughter was about three years old at the time (he also had a newborn baby girl) and there was a recent national warning about razor blades in apples and poisoned candy bars, he said.

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"Also, in the early 1970s once you hit Labor Day weekend, there were no more tourists in town except for later in the year, at Hidden Valley (the former ski resort in Rocky Mountain National Park)," said Street, "Even in the 80s, the town was completely dead going into Halloween." It seemed like a good idea to make trick-or-treating easier and safer for the local children while getting people into the stores during the off season.

Every year since then, Halloween has been a downtown destination for locals - young and old - with local businesses footing the candy bill.

During the historic flooding of September 11-13, virtually all of the shops along the south side of downtown Elkhorn Avenue took in water and were damaged, some significantly. "Eight businesses closed permanently as a result of the flood," said Dickey, "and about 10-15 businesses on the south side of the street are still cleaning up (and are not open)."

It looked like Halloween was going to be meager - at best - this year.

George suggested approaching local and regional banks for donations to purchase candy for downtown businesses to distribute at Halloween - businesses that were spending money on cleanup and repair and losing money due to decreased visitation after the flood.

Dickey then spoke with Rob Pieper, who owns Poppy's Pizza & Grill and Mama Rose's Italian Restaurant with his wife, Julie, to ask if he had any connections in the candy business. Perhaps the candy could be purchased wholesale?

"I figured we needed about $8,000- $10,000 in wholesale candy," said Dickey.

"Rob knew what business I was in and he contacted me and explained what the situation was," said Pearson. "My family and I have lived in Estes Park for seven years and Halloween has always been a big event for my family." Pearson, employed with McLane for 15 years, transferred from North Carolina to Estes Park in 2006 with his wife, Sarah, and their three sons. At the time Alec was 12, Joshua was 10, and Lucas was 3.

"I told him I would see what I could do," Pearson said. Upon receiving the call, "without hesitation," the candy manufacturers pitched in, not to provide the candy at cost, but to donate the candy outright. "We made a list of everything that was donated and realized we didn't need more - we just needed more variety." That's when McLane stepped up and provided additional candy.

McLane, who delivers candy for various convenience stores, had the inventory in the warehouse in Longmont, said Pearson, and every Thursday, a truck would come up to Estes Park. Last week's delivery contained the generous gift and the wonderful news blew up all over Facebook. "But I noticed in the Facebook comments that everyone was asking Rob about his Skittles. Where were the Skittles?" said Pearson, "They wanted to know what Rob was going to do without his Skittles." Pearson quickly deduced that Rob was a Skittles addict.

"On Saturday, October 26, my wife and I went to lunch at Mama Rose's," Pearson said, " and we each brought a package of Skittles for Rob." After Rob thanked them for the treat, they told him to bring his two-wheeler to their car where they had an additional four cases of Skittles to add to the Halloween cache.

"I figured it was 294,000 calories in Skittles alone!" said Rob gleefully, "and I've only eaten about 500 of those..." The rest, he said, will be given out by Poppys (still closed, under reconstruction) and Mama Rose's, which reopened after extensive cleanup and renovation on October 10. With shining, childlike eyes, Rob explained, " Candy is one of the major food groups, right after pasta & pizza! Of course, I am slightly biased..."

In the meantime, other local candy elves were working their magic.

"I heard Charley Dickey was heading up the effort to provide candy for the businesses this year and I asked how we could help," said Sara Bergsten of Families for Estes. She passed on the word and a candy drive at Greenwood Community Church in Greenwood Village was started.

Bergsten picked up the church's donation on Monday, which consisted of two large utility carts and several extra bins of candy. Another Families for Estes member, Katie Bobowski, also of the Soaring Eagles 4H Club in Estes Park, rounded up all the Larimer County 4H clubs to the candy rescue. Donations from High Country Handiworkers 4-H Club (Loveland), Hearts and Hands 4-H Club (Fort Collins), Wind Dancers 4-H Club (Berthoud), Cinch-Em Up 4-H Club (Fort Collins), Bits 'n Pieces (Fort Collins), Boxelder Trails (Loveland), Country Kickers (Fort Collins), Buckeye Buck-n-Ears (Fort Collins), Rock Ridge 4-H Club (Fort Collins), and Twin Mounds 4-H Club; and, extension staff members Pam Heeney, Kathy Wolfe, and horticulture agent Allison O'Connor combined forces to collect and donate more than 300 pounds of additional candy.

There are some old traditions continuing as well: Laura's Fine Candies of Estes Park will be making caramel apples - about 3,500, confirmed an employee. He said that Laura's did not suffer any damage to the property in the flood; the building is located on the north side of Elkhorn Avenue.

Charley Dickey, who is also a member of Estes Valley Partners for Commerce (EVPC), emptied a second cart of donated candy from Safeway on Sunday. He predicts the cart will be filled at least one more time before it comes time to deliver everything to the more than 80 business owners who have signed up -whether their stores are open or not - to give out candy on Halloween. This is the second year EVPC has collected candy to help offset the cost of the holiday for local businesses.

This is also the second year that Estes Park has been financially hit because of natural disasters. Wildfires negatively impacted visitation in the summer of 2012 and this year, the historic flood took a big cut out of the most lucrative months of the year: September and October. With both direct routes from the Front Range - Highways 36 and 34 - still under reconstruction, it is hoped that the entire town of Estes Park will come downtown for trick-or-treat this Halloween. And visitors who can make the trip are invited to come take part in the celebration, too, said Rob and Dickey. Lodging is available and the stores that can be will be open for the weekend.

Downtown Elkhorn Avenue will be closed to traffic by late afternoon Thursday; festivities traditionally begin around 5 pm.

"This is the first time (since the flood) the entire community is going to have a chance to all be together - in an iconic area - for something that is purely a celebration!" said Rob. "I love Halloween, and I think this is going to be a very special Halloween this year. "

"It's awesome all these organizations and companies have come together to help us," Bergsten said. "It's really important to carry on this tradition, it's even more important this year. The kids have gone through a lot, it's another way to get the kids some consistency and normalcy."

"This is a time for the community to celebrate and forget the disaster of the past and think toward the future - an optimistic future!" said Dickey.

"Things are changing daily (roads being fixed, etc), all of that is so positive and optimistic."

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